Oral Answers to Questions

Heather Wheeler Excerpts

Monday 15th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Maggie Throup (Erewash) (Con)]

14. What recent progress he has made on ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers.

[Mrs Heather Wheeler (South Derbyshire) (Con)]

20. What recent progress he has made on ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers.

[Jack Brereton (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Con)]

22. What recent progress he has made on ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers.

--- Later in debate ---

[Tom Pursglove]

I hear my hon. Friend’s calls for the specific hotels in her constituency to be closed. She can be reassured that we will continue to work closely on this issue with colleagues from across Government to get it right and make sure that we can exit hotels as quickly as possible.

[Mrs Wheeler]

I thank my hon. Friend for his earlier answers. As he knows, I received official notification today that Newton Park hotel, which was a four-star hotel in my constituency before it was taken over entirely for use by asylum seekers, is to have the contract ended at the end of February. That is an enormous relief to those in those in the small village there and to those in other villages that the important V3 bus route goes through. I thank him for keeping to the word of his predecessor that the hotel use for asylum seekers would end in the second tranche of closures.

[Tom Pursglove]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the representations she made on this issue. The situation in her constituency demonstrates that the Government’s plan is working and we are seeing hotel exits happen. That is a direct consequence of getting on and making decisions, bringing forward alternative accommodation and also, crucially, reducing in-flow into the system in the first place.